[plug] What do you school-age members think of SlashDot's HellMouth articles?

[Bret Busby]

I may be too old to remember school days too clearly, but I think it weird
that the grey haired, evil emperor, when he's managed to get his fly zipped
up, says that it is a matter for concern, when he's busy bombing europe!
And, the nazi's have declared that they have decided that they will invade
any country, if it suits their purpose!

We had rifles in the house, when I was young, but the thought of using them
to shoot another human would never have occurred to us. And, after getting
chucked out of school, getting a job was the primary objective (there were
jobs, back then). It would not have occurred to me, or, to any of my family,
to take any action of retribution, regardless of the stupidity and inequity
of the expulsion

I had a rifle, a semi-automatic, which was quite appropriate. It was on a
farm, and a bolt action rifle, or a single shot rifle, isn't much use when
trying to shoot a herd (?) of rabbits, or possums, or other vermin. To me,
semi-automatic rifles have their place, but not in cities, and, to me, no
firearms are justified being in cities, apart from, maybe, for use by the
police (when they are not shooting their ex-wives, etc). And, now, we barely
have enough police to worry about, anyway.

We didn't have computer games, then; a few years later, I saw a computer
game, it was star trek, loaded by putting a set of punched cards into the
card reader for an IBM 1130, and then, when it was running, on a screen, we
could follow the x's, and figure out what was happening.

I was reasonably bright, when I was at primary and secondary school, and not
very popular, because of that. When fights occurred at secondary school,
they could have anywhere between two, and two hundred, people taking part.
But, no weapons were ever used in any fights, when I went to school.

Computer games do not make people killers, and neither do firearms. The
ownership, and use, of firearms need to be strictly regulated, as too many
dangerous people have them; whether it is the lunatics that go around trying
to kill everyone, or, the people who do not secure the firearms.

Firearms, and computer games, are like axes. They are tools. It is how they
are used, and what they are used for, that makes them dangerous. I think
that the danger of computer games, is limited to spending too much time with
them, and the effects on a person's health, because of that; it is like
watching television, or using a computer. It is not society that makes
people killers, it is the killers, themselves.

The schools may have too many students, the social behaviours of the
students, and the teachers, may be inappropriate, but that does not make
people killers, and it does not justify killing.

Some people will kill, because that is the way they are, unless they are
stopped, and some people will, similarly, just kill for the sake of killing,
because that is the way they are.

We can not ban every thing that they might use to harm others (are we going
to require permits to buy string, so they cannot use it as garrottes?), and
we cannot eliminate, or ban, people, who might upset these psychotics.

But, proper and reasonable gun control can be implemented, and the actions
of world leaders, such as the evil emperor, could be regulated.

How can school children, or other people, be expected to have any respect
for human life, when they see the evil emperor start a war, for the sake of
starting a war, to detract attention from his improper conduct, or, to
increase revenue for arms producers, or, to test some new killing device?

And, how can people be expected to have any respect for other people, when
the courts treat violence with complete disregard, and, treat crime in
general, with such little regard?

For anyone outside Australia, I still remember the west australian supreme
court judge, who said that it was alright for a man to use force, to get a
woman to have sexual intercourse with him, especially if the woman was his
wife. And there was also the italian judge, who ruled that a woman who wore
jeans, could not physically be raped. And, here in west australia, when
someone steals a car, then kills someone, during the joyride, it's just
tough luck for the victim. Too many people have been killed through that
method, in west australia, and the culprits, while known, go unpunished,
and, more importantly, society does not get any protection from such
criminals. And, the two people involved in murdering the Armadale City
Council health inspector, in the armed hold-up, in which they used handguns,
got away with it.

Unfortunately, while the rulers, such as the evil emperor, have a
predisposition to violence, by their having wars for the sake of having
wars, and, while the judges actively support crime, and, especially, crimes
of violence, by refusing to deal with it appropriately, we will continue to
have mindless killing through all levels of society.

But, it is not due to peer group rubbish in schools, or such things.

If it's good enough for the evil emperor to do it, and the judges support
it, then, what is wrong with it?

Think about it. And, be scared, be very scared. You, or, someone close to
you, or someone else that you know, could be the next innocent victim.

But, anyway, wot's all this got to do with Linux?

Bret Busby
_____________________________________

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-plug at linux.org.au [mailto:owner-plug at linux.org.au]On Behalf
Of Leon Brooks
Sent: 28 April 1999 16:18
To: PLUG Mailing List
Subject: [plug] What do you school-age members think of SlashDot's
HellMouth articles?


http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/04/25/1438249

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/04/27/0310247

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